An Inquiry into the Military History of Religion (with some Fiction…)

In Retrospect: Swords and Wizardry

Wait a minute…why are you doing a retrospective over a game that’s still in print?

Because I haven’t played it in five years, that’s why!

Swords & Wizardry filled a niche where I was looking for an old school game but didn’t want the hassle of using the actual old school rules from pre-3rd editions of D&D. I’m comfortable with most of those set of rules (save for the little brown books, perhaps) but trying to explain those rules to prospective players. Well…

Swords & Wizardry wasn’t all that intimidating. The complete rules were contained in a slim volume. It provided a basic template for an old school D&D-esque game. You could explain it and run it however you liked. And there was a lot freedom there.

With Swords & Wizardry, all that stuff from before 3rd Edition became compatible again. AD&D, AD&D 2e, The D&D Rules Cyclopedia. And so on. You could use it as needed.

2 thoughts on “In Retrospect: Swords and Wizardry”

I feel like, had I tried to run Dungeon Crawl Classics with some of my former players, the reaction would have been similar. But even with ascending Armor Class and discrete race and class, the idea of not playing superhero-strength characters in a D&D-like game baffles them.